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2 thoughts on “Economic Report of the President, 2010”

Menzie – and I urge everyone to read it. It strikes me as fair, balanced, extremely well- and readably-written and about as good a take on the strategic outlook as you’ll get. My one bone to pick would be that the intermediate term real GDP growth appears optimistically high but in line with consensus. The discussion of fragilities, causes and major structural issues, e.g. Healthcare, Education, Innovation, Growth, Savings and Investment is a good a blueprint for the real issues we’re facing as anything. That it happens to rather closely resemble stuff I’ve been blogging about for a couple of years is entirely besides the point :)! Though might one mention that their take on the accumulation of debt rather closely resembles this post from Sep09: http://tinyurl.com/y8pljvg (subsequently treated much better by Dave Wessel at the WSJ).

Menzie,
Several of your recent post have dealt with the fiscal position and debt to gdp ratios. Could you take the time to explain the difference in fiscal policy and implications of govt debt in a gold standard regime and a floating rate regime? In 1971 the govt took the dollar off the gold standard. Most major currencies are not on the gold standard. Surely there must be a difference. What is it?